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Baking is the best form of procrastination one can pursue. Why?? 1) You get to be creative and 2) The outcomes is a sweet heavenly reward. While I have neglected grocery shopping recently, being the fatty bear that I am, I always have baking supplies on hand 🙂 So I kicked my ginormous study binder aside and plugged in the kitchenaid!

Ordinarily, when I have bananas going to the other side I have the tendency to make banana bread, but what do you do when you only have 1 banana??? Not nearly enough to make the delicious banana bread, but never fear I gave a twist to an all time favorite cookie putting that banana to good use…Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies!! And the super plus, I like to tell myself they are more healthy because you use less egg by putting in the banana (we’ll ignore the fact there is still 2 sticks of butter in there 😛 ) So without further ado, kick aside whatever task you’ve been busting your butt working on and take a little break by baking up a batch of these. Enjoy!

Teagasaur’s Ba-Na-Na Chocolate Chip Cookies

MAKES ABOUT 5 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/4 flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 sticks butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 banana

1 12oz bag mini chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, set aside.

In mixing bowl, mix butter, sugars, and vanilla. Mix until smooth.

Add egg and banana, mix until combined.

Slowly add flour mixture until fully incorporated

Stir in mini chocolate chips and nuts.

Place 1 inch scoops of dough about 2in apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Cool on sheet for 2 minutes, move to wire rack.

So this recipe came to me from biting into a york peppermint patty. Yes, food truly is that inspirational to me. Bite and BAM! lightening strikes. As you will see I actually decided to do a variation on the york peppermint patty lightening strike because I was having a more peanut buttery chocolate craving. Anyways for those of you who have always wanted a way to eat cookie, candy and brownie at once here is the opportunity! With the stores thinking it’s Halloween you can find those fantastic candy combo bags for a decent price! Enjoy!!

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2) Grease regular sized cupcake pan (if you get the mini cookies you might be able to fit them into the bite size brownie pan, if you want something a little smaller, meaning more little brownies to eat)

3) Make the brownie batter according to box directions. Place spoon full of brownie mix on bottom of cupcake pan, place cookie and then candy on top in. Then pour brownie mix over cookie/candy. You don’t need to completely cover the candy fill to about 2/3 up the side of the candy.

4) Bake for 28-32 minutes. They are going to be really gooey if you try to prick them with toothpick so look for them pulling away from the sides of the pan, that’s a pretty good indicator they are done.

5) Have the patience to let them cool before you sink your teeth in. (This is the hardest part for me)

So this post isn’t really much of a recipe, more like a lesson on saving money! Which next to eating is one of my favorite activities especially when I am saving money grocery shopping. I don’t know about you, but I’m the type of person that collects the free club cards almost everywhere I go. It’s like collecting beanie babies or pogs (0kay…I know these are dated examples, but I’m out of touch of what people collect these days.)

Anyways on this food mission I was curious to see if making your own trail mix at home really saves you money. Because when you are standing in the aisle looking at individual prices of cashews ($4.99), dried pineapple ($4.69), sunflower seeds ($1.99), dried cherries ($3.69), pepitas ($4.39), almond slivers ($3.49), and milk chocolate chips ($2.39) you don’t really feel like you are saving money especially when you ring it all up and start shelling out $26.00 for nuts, seeds and dried fruit. There you are spending $26.00 because you want trail mix and you think back to the already made trail mix for $2.69 and momentarily think what am I doing with all this stuff! Well I’ve got good news for you… according to my calculations you are saving money! Anywhere from 35-45%! Now that is bargain shopping!

So here you have it, the break down of how much each ingredient in my trail mix costs. (Cost is per 1/2 cup). To make this trail mix just mix a half cup of each of the ingredients listed below in a large bowl and place in snack bags as 1/3 cup servings. You can decide how salty you want it based on your selection of nuts and seeds. Most of them you can get unsalted or salted. I find having one salty is just the right amount of salt.

Sunflower seeds: $0.27

Cashews: $0.67

almond slivers: $1.16 ( you can save more money if you use whole almonds, $0.60)

Okay, so perhaps you don’t care about saving money, but here’s the other great thing about making your own trail mix…you can put whatever you want in it! No having to buy 3 different trail mixes to fulfill your mango, cherry, banana chip, raisin, almond, cashew, peanut, walnut, date, sunflower, pumpkin seed fix.

I hope this post has inspired you to go out, save money, and get creative with your trial mix combination. The sky is the limit! Enjoy!

Money Saving Trail Mix!

PsssT.. Just wanted to share a link to another really good nut recipe from my foodie crush Alton Brown, without further ado GINGER ALMONDS. I took one commentator’s recommendation and substituted the arbol chili for 1 1/2 tsp chili powder. I also did 2 tablespoons soy sauce to make it vegetarian since I couldn’t find the vegetarian friendly Worcestershire sauce. Great for a mid-day/post-run snack. Enjoy!

So my inspiration for this Sunday Sweet comes from one of my favorite comics, Sheldon by Dave Kellett (Click on the comic below and you can go to the site and become a big fan too!). I feel as if Arthur, the duck character, is my foodie soul mate and when I read this comic I instantly had an urge to get into the kitchen and make my version of his MEGA BUTTER!!! So here is the comic of inspiration and my version of ARTHUR’s MEGA BUTTER. Get ready to be blown away by sheer awesomeness!!

And as an added bonus I’ve even thrown in an almost vegan Mega Butter Oatmeal cookie of MEGA proportions as well. This is a modified recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s book Vegan with a Vengeance. I definitely recommend you check it out even if you aren’t a vegan.

So Mega, So Awesome!

MEGA BUTTER, MEGA AWESOME!

Watch out Jelly you are about to be dominated!

INGREDIENTS

1/3 cup peanuts, roasted and unsalted (or salted if you like a saltier peanut butter)

Spread nuts in a cake pan. Roast nuts in the oven for about 10-12 minutes. You’ll start smelling the roasty nut goodness as the are getting good and yummy. Take them out of the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes.

Pour cooled nuts into a food processor or blender. Before adding the flavorings give the nuts a good blending. Give the pulsed nuts a stir and add the honey, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Turn on the blender and gradually add the oil. Do this very slowly, it takes a bit for the oil to really incorporate so be patient!! Drizzle the oil!! This takes about 5 minutes.

Forget the bread and jelly, just get a spoon and dig in! Enjoy!

MEGA BUTTER AND OATMEAL COOKIES

COOKIE FACE!!

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups quick oats

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup canola oil

3/4 cup homemade mega butter, (or you can go out and purchase a peanut butter of choice but that just isn’t as fun, now is it??)

Mix all your dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking powder, and salt) in a medium bowl. In your mixing bowl mix all the wet and sugar ingredients (brown sugar, granulated sugar, milk, oil, peanut butter, and vanilla). Mix them until well combined, it will look creamy. Mix in the dry ingredients until well incorporated. It will be a thick dough and safely edible!!! (For those of you who have scruples with eating cookie dough made with egg vegan recipes are great because they have no eggs! So dig in and eat a cookie or two worth of dough before you bake 😉 or if you have more self control than others you could wait for the finished product )

To make cookies pack a 1/3 cup measuring cup full of cookies dough (I gave my measuring cup a lil’ spritz of cooking spray first so the dough would easily pop out). Roll the dough into a ball and then flatten on your cookie sheet to about 1/2 in thickness. You can use a large cup or pie pan with a greased bottom to flatten them, but I found even with the grease I had problems with it sticking to the bottom of the cup/pan. Place about 1 in apart so they don’t bake into each other. You will probably get about 5 cookies per a sheet.

Bake 12-15 minutes; you want the edges browned and the centered a bit puffed. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes so they will harden.

You will get about 12 cookies. If you are in the sharing mood with a large crowd you can make the cookies the standard size and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Don’t forget to leave lots of room for dessert! Enjoy!

*I like to thank my foodie crush Alton Brown for this sugar tip…when you have a recipe that calls for both brown sugar and granulated sugar you can exchange for more of one sugar. Why would you do this??? Well a sugar with more brown sugar tends to be a softer cookies, while a cookie with more granulated sugar is crisper! Just make sure you have the same amount of sugar in the end. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup granulated sugar ( 2 cups sugar total), you could make a softer cookie by using 1 1/2 cups brown sugar and only a 1/2 cup of granulated sugar (as you can see still only 2 cups sugar total). Give it a try with your chocolate chips cookies next time!

Well, it’s a new year and I’ve rethought my approach to this blog since clearly my attempts at it last year majorly, majorly failed. So here is how I hope for it to work this year…

If you are anything like me you have hundreds of recipes you’ve been meaning to try, but always find some excuse not too and if you are like me you end up falling back on your dozen tried and true recipes. So this year is a year to trying new recipes! I’ve set a goal for myself to try at least 3 new recipes a week. I’m dedicating Sundays to sweets because I like baking and I think there should be something sweet in my life at least once a week. So to kick us off I present you with a recipe of my own making. It takes a lot of work but if you skip the filling part it’s not that bad. Without further ado…

CAPE COD CUPCAKES

A Cocktail In a Cupcake

Orange Cupcake

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

juice of one navel orange, or 1/2 cup orange juice

1 egg

2 tablespoon orange zest

1 1/2 cup flour

1 package instant vanilla pudding

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

Cranberry Jelly Filling

2 tablespoon vodka

1/3 cup lime

enough water to make liquid 3/4 cup

3/4 cup sugar

1 bag 8 oz cranberry

Lime Buttercream Frosting

1 lb confectioner’s sugar ( about 3 1/2 cups if using 2lb bag)

1/3 cup butter, room temperature

1/3 cup shortening, room temperature

2 teaspoon rose’s sweetened lime juice

zest of one lime

1/4 teaspoon just white egg powder

2 tablespoon heavy cream

pinch of salt

water for adjusting consistency

ORANGE CUPCAKE

Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit. Put cupcake papers in the cupcake tin should make a dozen.

In mixing bowl mix sugar, milk, orange juice, egg, and orange zest until well mixed and sunny yellow. Add the dry ingredients. Mix until all is combined and the batter looks thick and creamy. Pour into prepared cupcake papers. Cook for 20 minutes. Let cupcakes cool before filling with cranberry.

CRANBERRY JELLY FILLING

Combine liquids and sugar in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Once boiling add the cranberries. Stir occasionally boil until it becomes jelly like about 20 minutes. Let cool before filling pastry bag which should be fitted with a large star tip.

LIME BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

Beat butter and shortening until smooth. Scrap down sides of bowl. Add heavy cream, lime juice, zest, salt, egg white powder, and confectioners sugar. Beat on medium high speed. The correct consistency for the frosting should have it filling up the bowl (covering the sides of your mixing bowl). If it seems too thick add a little water at a time and if it is too liquidy add more confectioners sugar. BE CAREFUL! Frosting is very sensitive to the addition of liquid only add tablespoons at a time.

You may refrigerate the frosting for 1 week. Bring to room temperature before using. Or you can freeze the frosting for up to a month; again, bring to room temperature for use.

PUTTING TOGETHER THE CUPCAKES

To fill with the cranberry jelly pierce the center of the cupcake with the tip of the pastry bag filled with cranberry. Pump it full with the yummy stuff! It’s okay if it squirts out the top since you will be covering it with frosting.

For the frosting you can put it on with a spatula or you can pull out another pastry bag and tip and make it look decorative with a swirl of frosting.

The work is done!!! It’s time to kick up your feet and enjoy your hard work.

This is an orange variation on the delectable Aunt J’s Chocolate Pudding cake. If you love that cake I am certain you will love this one too. And if you were like bummer that last cake was chocolate well now I have a non-chocolate version so you can be in on the cakey goodness. Just so you know, I used clementines instead of an ordinary orange for my cake. The clementines made great garnish, too (Don’t ya think?)

Dreamsicle Cake

Orange Dream

INGREDIENTS:

1 box yellow cake

1 package vanilla pudding

1 bag white chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1 3/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons orange zest

GLAZE:

1 cups powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoons orange zest

1 tablespoons orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease bundt pan.

Mix cake mix, instant pudding, milk, eggs, and zest.

Stir in white chocolate chips

Cook in oven for 35-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool completely in bundt pan.

For Glaze:

Beat together melted butter, powdered sugar, orange juice and zest until smooth. Add more juice if consistency is too thick. It is best to add the juice little by little, otherwise you play a back and forth game of more powdered sugar! more juice!

Drizzle over cooled cake.

NOTE: If you prefer a vanilla glaze substitute juice for milk and orange zest for a teaspoon of vanilla extract. The original recipe for the glaze made a whooooole lot so that is why my cakes is coated. I cut the recipe I posted in half so don’t expect as much glaze as what is on the cake above.

If you are anything like me when it comes to buying bananas you buy more than you can consume in the peak banana eating period, and so there you are with bananas heading to the other side…But never fear I have a solution!! Banana Muffins!! I found the basics for this banana muffin at Allrecipes, but to me I wanted to add some extra moistness, goodness umph! So in came the pudding, milk, and a bit of vanilla extract. Trust me, you won’t be sorry for these extra steps. So without further ado I present to you my version of the Banana Crumb Muffin….

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease or line with paper muffin tin. If you are using a cupcake pan it makes about 15 cupcakes.

In a small bowl mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and instant pudding mix.

In a large bowl blend bananas, sugar, egg, vanilla, milk, and oil until well mixed. Add the dry ingredients and mix until well mixed. OPTIONAL: You can also add 1 cup chopped walnuts or 1 cup chocolate chips at this point.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

To prepare topping combine topping ingredients in a bowl with a fork until crumbly; sprinkle on top of muffins.

Bake 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

So start your day right! Get in the kitchen and whip up a batch of these yummy muffins. Enjoy!!